This invention relates to grain and crop pickup implements attached to harvesting combines, and particularly to an apparatus found on these implements between the pickup and the platform of the combine which conveys harvested crop materials such as grains and beans from the grain pickup to the grain receiving platform of a combine.
The use of a conveying apparatus as described above, known in some earlier versions as a draper belt drive assembly, intermediate a grain pickup assembly and a combine platform is long known in the harvesting field of the agriculture industry. The purpose of the crop conveying apparatus is to help move grain from the pickup assembly to the combine platform, and to prevent the grain from being inadvertently deposited on the ground behind the pickup assembly without reaching the combine platform. As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,795,100 issued to Applicant's father on June 11, 1957, draper belt drive assemblies generally include two adjacent, parallel rollers with several belts wrapped about them and rotating cooperatively therewith. These belts have flexible fins or flippers which help carry grain from the pickup to the combine platform. Additionally, on some draper belt drive assemblies, especially those used in harvesting dry beans or similar corps, an additional component known as a bean roller may be used to help convey bean stalks onto a combine platform. A problem has been encountered in the past because of the tendency of draper belts to scrape crop material off of the front end of the platform and onto the ground.
Another problem encountered in previous styles of crop conveying apparatus is the heavy wear resulting to the flexible fins of draper belts from contact with the various types of pickup means employed by grain pickup assemblies, including the stripper bars or sections of raking pickups but especially from the fingers of belt-style pickups. This wear problem is particularly pronounced with belt-style pickups because the grain pickup belt is rotating in a direction opposed to the draper belt, at relatively high speeds, at the point at which the flexible fingers of the belt pickup come into contact with the flexible fins of the draper belt. The pickups operate at speeds of up to 70 rpm. This problem is less pronounced when a raking pickup is employed because the element with which the flexible fins of the draper belts come into contact--the stripper bar or section of the raking pickup--is stationary, and the contact is uniform along the length of the flexible fins, rather than concentrated within a narrow region, as with the fingers of the belt pickup.
A further problem with previous styles of crop conveying apparatus is that should draper belts need replacing due to excessive wear, for example, the entire draper belt assembly would need to be disassembled. This is so because the draper belts are wrapped about two rollers, and both rollers would need to be disassembled in order to access the draper belts to be replaced.
With this background in mind, a crop material conveying apparatus which is more effective, serviceable, and durable has been developed.